A Different View
by galactica121
Summary: Naruto gets placed on a different team. Naruto isn't the same person from the manga. He's much more quiet. Smart Naruto. AU.
1. Prologue

**Basically my first fic. Prologue is going to not have that much dialogue just details on Naruto's life and his abilities so far. You can skip to Chapter 1 if you want.**

Prologue

Naruto Uzumaki did not have many friends as a child, and lived a life that was depressing. Born without knowing his family, he was truly an outcast. A pariah in a village that emphasize bonds, only three people made an effort to reach out to him, the Hokage, Teuchi, and Ayame.

Naruto lived his first five years in the orphanage. He wasn't necessarily mistreated by the adults, but they did punish him harsher than the other kids. Often, they would take meals away from him, but would never jeopardize his life. As a result, he often tried to steal food from the kitchen. But stealing from the kitchen was a lot harder than it seems. One had to pass by many objects scattered on the floor, and the chef. In the beginning, Naruto got caught. A LOT. Each time, the punishment would be longer periods of no meals. But, Naruto got significantly better. He began to time his attempts, waiting until the chef was busy so he could not hear; he began to watch his surroundings for creaky floorboards and things that could make noise, but most importantly, his movement became a lot harder to detect. Although the noise of running water, food being fried, and pots and pans clanking against one another, the feat itself was impressive for a five year old.

By age seven, Naruto was to attend the Ninja Academy and to live in his own apartment that the Hokage willingly paid for out of pocket. Naruto truly did not wish to live in the orphanage, and was extremely open about it, often wreaking havoc, and getting in fights with the other kids. His punishment was gradually becoming worse and worse, and the Hokage saw this. Sadly though, life outside of the orphanage was much worse as Naruto's diet quickly became ramen day and night and people openly mocked and glared at him. He could not enter stores without being chased out. At first Naruto sought to exact his revenge like he did in the orphanage, but while his stealth skills were above average, hiding from ninja to stop him was out of the question.

So by age nine, Naruto had all but stopped pranking. He was a lot more reserved, but not socially abnormal. He was rather intelligent, doing well in the Academy's tests on various non-ninja skills. He also met a few people he wouldn't necessarily call "friends," but they didn't make fun of him like the other kids. Still, they didn't openly want to hang out with him.

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep_.

"Damn alarm clock," Naruto thought as he turned off the device. His day began like it normally did. Well it was 2 A.M. and dark outside. Naruto went through his usual routine of stretches to light exercise to wake him up. Afterwards, he brushed his teeth and took a shower in ice cold water in the bath located at the end of the hallway. His tenement didn't have bathrooms for individual rooms, and turned off the hot water after 12 A.M. He put on his clothes which consisted of a fading black shirt with a red Uzumaki swirl on the back and the symbol of Konoha on the front, faded black cargo pants held up by an old leather belt where he put his two pouches that held kunai, shuriken on the right and various ointments and medical supplies on the back. He slipped on his black sandals and made his way outside.

After getting dressed, Naruto went over to his "kitchen" to get two cups of ramen. Naruto did not really have much to eat outside of cups of ramen which he bought from Ichiraku's Ramen. However, Naruto wasn't stupid enough to only eat ramen. He ate fruits, vegetables, and meats whenever he could. Seeing it was 2:30 A.M. he took two cups of ramen and a small old pot with him out and locked the door.

There was overcast outside and it was pretty cold. With the overcast it would be harder for various patrol ninja to see him, and even if they did, Naruto had several alleyways to get to safety. Naruto's apartment was located in the poorer area of Konoha, and he made his way toward the hokage monument. He used back alley routes and once he reached the base of the mountain. He sprinted up the stairs as fast as he could toward Training Ground 17 at the base behind the mountain. No one really used these grounds because it was far and rather underdeveloped with only a small open field and lots of trees.

These grounds were perfect for someone who didn't want to be disturbed in the middle of the night. It was 3:00 by the time Naruto got water from a nearby stream and cooked his ramen, and he looked around at the various traps he placed the night before for potential meat to eat. Sadly, he found none tonight. Afterwards, Naruto began to work on his taijutsu. Naruto never really learned a specific style, but rather used a self-created style that consisted of heavy offense, and defense that always tried to create openings for quick punches and kicks. Naruto got inspiration from watching his classmates spar or other ninja spar, and he took what he liked and tried to incorporate it into his technique.

Naruto began by various exercises to build body strength like pushups on one hand, crunches, leg raises, squats, pull-ups and curling his whole body on a nearby tree branch. He then began to shadow box working specifically on the speed of his punches because he wanted them to be as fast as possible to get jabs in at small time frames. At his stage he could get in 4 punches per second which was impressive for his age. He then worked on various combinations for an hour with jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts. He also worked with using his elbows to inflict severe punishment to opponent's heads. Afterwards he began to work on various kicks by kicking trees, but unlike punches Naruto emphasized power in his kick. Along with his kick he used his knees to potentially open up or finish opponents. In the beginning, kicking trees really screwed up his shins, but they healed and became hard as metal. Naruto worked on various grappling and holding techniques when he could, but having no sparring partner really prevents one from effectively apply grapples and holds. Lastly, Naruto worked on sidestepping, moving backwards, lunging, and moving short distances at high speeds to help with dodging and packing more power in hits. By the time the sun began to rise, Naruto would run several laps and take a quick bath in the stream nearby. He ate his other cup of ramen and began to head back to his apartment. He quickly changed into a new set of clothing that didn't smell like someone rolled in trash. Konoha was quite empty as he made his way to the academy.

Naruto entered the empty classroom and checked the time. It was 7:20 A.M.

'As usual,' Naruto thought, 'no one bothers to show up until 7:45.'

He went to grab a book on chakra control and read it as he did daily to try to improve his abysmal control. He made his way to the back of the classroom and sat at the desk near the window and began to read. By the time the other kids began to pile into the class, he didn't really mind and didn't say anything until Iruka did attendance.

"Naruto. Naruto. NARUTO!" Iruka screamed. Naruto replied with a simple "Present."

The school day continued as it usually did with other kids ignoring him, and often making fun of him by calling him a loser, loner, and a failure, but he did his best to ignore these comments, but it still got to him. Tomorrow would be the exit exam and he decided it was in his best interest to listen to Iruka give a crash course on everything they've learned.

Afterschool, Naruto made his way to his apartment and began to practice chakra control. He fell asleep at around 6:30. That night Naruto made his way to Training Ground 17, and began to try to walk up trees like he read in one of the many books to improve control. Naruto found the exercise to be rather difficult, and kept at it throughout the night and gave himself a 2 hour period of meditation instead of physical workout to relax and focus his thoughts and not exhaust himself. He packed extra food to be at top condition for tomorrow's exams.


	2. One Last Day

Chapter 1: One Last Day

"Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha please step onto the field." a stern Iruka said as he backed off the other students from the field to allow the spar. This was the taijutsu portion of the academy exam to take the first step to become a genin. Despite training very hard in his taijutsu, Naruto knew that his incomplete style could not match that of the Uchiha who had endless techniques to learn from.

"Begin!" Iruka said, and Sasuke ran as fast as possible into a leg sweep as Naruto began to back off, but he didn't expect the Uchiha to be this fast. Naruto landed on his shoulders hard and he heard some snickers from the rest of his class. Sasuke went for a kick to the head for a KO, Naruto rolled out of the way and kicked Sasuke's other leg making him fall to the ground too. Naruto immediately took the opportunity and went for a choke hold from the back as Sasuke began to get up, but Sasuke turned slightly to give himself enough space to elbow Naruto's ribs to break the choke. Sasuke went for a lunging punch as he underestimated Naruto's speed, and Naruto easily sidestepped and sent a knee right into Sasuke's gut knocking the wind out of him. Naruto followed up by a jab to break Sasuke's weakened guard exposing his head, next was a cross straight for the head that hit Sasuke's mouth, Naruto then went for an uppercut with his left but Sasuke went with his backward momentum from the cross and Naruto's uppercut completely missed, the last punch was a hard cross for the KO. However, Sasuke grabbed Naruto's outstretched hand to divert the hit over his shoulder while throwing Naruto over his head. Sasuke finished with an armbar.

"SASUKEEEEEEEEEEEEE! THAT WAS SO AWESOME!" screamed his fangirls.

"Dobe." Sasuke said as he released his hold. Sasuke only had a busted lip after the spar.

'Shit I think my ribs fractured.' Naruto thought as he helped himself get up. He looked over at Iruka who was talking with Mizuki on the student's performance.

'I had that fight.' Naruto thought as he reviewed his performance. He wasn't sure whether his last punch would work and hesitated a bit which gave enough time for Sasuke to properly counter and end.

"The last two students please step forward!" Iruka said after Naruto limped his way back to the edge of the field. Naruto continued to limp towards a spot that was separate from the rest of his class. Naruto stole a quick glance at Sasuke who was surrounded by his own personal team of medics (fangirls) and saw the smirk on his face.

'Damn teme.' Naruto thought as he turned away to nurse his injuries.

After lunch the class went to the exam room where each person was individually called up to attempt the ninjutsu portion of the exam. Naruto knew he would pass the academy exam because he was sure he at least got ¾ of the questions right on his written exam, and although his chakra control was still horrendous, he spent the best part of the last two years practicing the leaf exercise for hours every day after school in his apartment. Naruto had plenty of free time on his hands as he slept at around 7, and didn't really do anything but train due to having zero friends. As a result, Naruto could at least manage the basic academy jutsus.

"Naruto please enter the examination room." Iruka said as Naruto moved his way toward the room.

"Please perform the three basic jutsu's that you've learned over the past 3 years please." Mizuki said. Naruto performed perfect henges, and was surprisingly quick on his kawarimi. At last came the hardest of the three, the bunshin no jutsu, although Naruto successfully performed it, during the cast, Naruto felt his chakra falter, but quickly recovered and made 3 satisfactory clones.

"Naruto, you are from now on a genin of Konoha," Iruka said with a huge smile as he handed Naruto his hitai, "we can celebrate with Ichiraku's tonight." Naruto smiled, and nodded his head as he made his way out to the now almost empty classroom. He began to pack all of his books and supplies when a thought came to him, 'What 6 crappy years I've spent here.' As Sasuke began to leave, he saw Mizuki pull him over to have a talk, but Naruto could care less and left for his apartment so he could do something about the various bruises on him and his ribs.

Naruto's walk to his apartment was relatively uneventful. He patched himself up, and found some spare bandages to wrap his ribs. He laid down for a nap deciding to forgo food so he can eat more ramen later tonight.

'Sucks to be Iruka.' Naruto thought as he began to drift to sleep.

_BANG-BANG-BANG_ "NARUTO!" Iruka screamed. Naruto's eyes shot open.

'Damn it! Forgot to set the alarmclock.' Naruto thought as he quickly put on some pants and raced toward his door. There a somewhat annoyed Iruka was waiting.

"Did you oversleep again?" Iruka asked.

"Nah. Was in the bathroom Iruka-sensei." Naruto said while sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Right….. So are you ready to go?" Iruka said. Naruto nodded and locked his door. "So team assignments are in two days. Please don't oversleep for that, it's really good to make a good impression."

"I really just want a team that is willing to work with me and is friendly." Naruto said with each word getting softer.

"I'm sure you will." Iruka said with a smile, "No matter what, I know you'll be a great ninja one day."

Naruto looked at his sensi and smiled which didn't happen often. The two talked about the life of a ninja and the obstacles that await those who choose the path of a shinobi until they reached the ramen stand.

"Hey Naruto! Haven't seen you around much lately!" Ayame exclaimed, "Dad Naruto came!"

Teuchi popped his head behind the curtains and said "So you came with your sensei, must be a special occasion!"

Naruto grinned and pointed at his forehead, "Look I'm a ninja now!"

"Congrats! I'm so proud of you!" Teuchi and Ayame said in unison. "First bowl is on the house! What would you two like?" Teuchi said.

'That's one less bowl to pay for.' Iruka thought with a sense of relief. "I'll order pork ramen." Iruka said.

"Me too." Naruto said with obvious excitement in his voice.

"So, how were your exams?" Ayame asked.

"I did okay, probably the middle of my class, but I lost to Uchiha-teme in a taijutsu spar." Naruto said with disappointment in his voice.

"Naruto you put up a really good fight against Sasuke. Don't be too disappointed." Iruka said.

"Still lost though." Naruto said.

Suddenly a chunin popped through the curtains and whispered in Iruka's ear that the Forbidden Scroll of Seals was stolen by Mizuki and Sasuke stopped him. "WHAT!" Iruka screamed, and quickly left the stand with Naruto following him toward the Hokage tower. Teuchi and Ayame looked at each other with worried looks in their faces as the duo quickly left.

A crowd was present outside of the Hokage tower. Iruka heard from a jonin named Hayate that Mizuki secretly infiltrated the Hokage office and stole it while the Hokage was out for a meeting. Mizuki had tried to recruit Sasuke by saying that he could be promoted to chunin if he successfully stole the scroll, but Sasuke refused saying that it was a "waste of time," and that "it was an impossible test." Sasuke trailed Mizuki for the rest of the day and nabbed him in the forest after Mizuki used a good portion of his chakra to escape, and was rather tired.

Naruto had a shocked look on his face as he heard the story. Despite Mizuki being tired and not at full strength, beating a chunin as a fresh-out the academy genin was an impressive feat.

"Naruto," Iruka said to break Naruto out of his daze, "we have to return home because the village is on lockdown, and all non-essential personnel need to be in their homes within the hour."

Iruka brought Naruto back to his apartment. "See you on Thursday Naruto!" Iruka said with a wave and was off.

Naruto locked his door and laid down on his futon to practice his leaf excercises. Naruto soon realized that the fact that Sasuke was so far ahead was bothering him and lost concentration. Naruto decided to read chakra control books and knocked out at around 10 P.M.

**If I screwed up grammar or something let met know. Please review!**


	3. Team 10

Chapter 2: Team 10

People barely began to make their way into Konoha's streets when Naruto saw the outline of the Ninja Academy in the distance.

'One last day,' Naruto thought, 'one step forward.' Naruto slowly walked through the empty hallways. Despite not taking a liking to the place, it's hard to forget the five years he spent here. He took a seat at his usual place in the back and took out his chakra control book. People began to file in a bit earlier today.

Iruka walked in flanked by several other ninja and said, "Today is your last day at the academy and as your teacher; I hope you all become great ninjas. It has been an honor to teach you all, and you guys have been the best class I have ever taught. I hope to see you guys soon." Iruka took a seat as a chunin began to read out the names of the teams.

"Team 1….."

"Team 2….."

"Team 3….."

"Team 7. Akimichi, Choji. Hyuuga, Hinata. Uchiha, Sasuke. Sensei: Hatake, Kakashi."

"Team 8. Aburame, Shino. Haruno, Sakura. Inuzaka, Kiba. Sensei: Yuhi, Kurenai."

"Team 10. Nara, Shikamaru. Uzumaki, Naruto. Yamanaka, Ino. Sensei: Sarutobi, Asuma."

Several noises were heard thoughout the classroom. "Hn." "NO SASUKE-KUN." "ALL RIGHT."

'At least I got Shikamaru,' Naruto thought happily.

"AHEM! You have the a few minutes until your jonin-sensei picks you up, try to be productive." The chunin said as he walked through the door with Iruka and another chunin.

"Bye guys!" Iruaka said as he left. "THANK YOU IRUKA-SENSEI!" The class said in unison. Iruka nodded and left.

Naruto looked up as Iruka left then proceeded to put his head back down thinking his team probably doesn't like him due to Ino previously having called him out.

Suddenly someone sat next to Naruto, "Seems like you're the type that likes to sleep huh."

"Yeah," was all Naruto could muster as his head shot up. He was somewhat surprised that Shikamaru actually made the effort to walk over knowing his personality.

"The quiet type too. Thank goodness." Shikamaru said as a small smile formed on Naruto's lips.

They both looked around the class. Choji was asking Sasuke and Hinata whether they wanted some of his chips or not. Hinata sat there somewhat awkwardly. Shino was shocked at Sakura's bashing of Kiba after he tried to hit on her. Ino slowly made her way over.

"Hey guys," she said in a depressed tone. She didn't mind Shikamaru since they've known each other for the longest time ever because of their dads, but Naruto was someone she never talked to. Many other kids avoided talking to him, and often ridiculed him so she followed suit for the sake of conformity.

Naruto looked at her then looked away with a faraway look in his eyes. 'She doesn't like me.'

"Ino, Naruto would be a good team mate. He can look out for himself." Shikamaru said.

"But he's not as good as Sasuke-kun." Ino said. Shikamaru sighed and mumbled the words 'Troublesome women.'

A beautiful brunette woman walked through the door. "Team 8."

Kiba whistled and quickly followed the woman with Sakura and Shino trailing.

Several other jonins picked up their teams, when a black haired man walked in and said, "Team 10, meet me in the front of the academy."

Shikamaru, Ino, and Naruto made their way forward to the door, and met a jonin smoking a cigarette in the front of the academy.

"Sucks that the Academy is a smoke-free zone," the man said, "anyways, my name is Asuma Sarutobi, and we'll try to keep things casual and simple. Have a seat on these benches and introduce yourself: Name, likes, dislikes, and dreams. Stop looking at the clouds, go first."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, "My name is Shikamaru Nara. My likes are sleeping and watching the clouds. Dislikes are loud people and cloudless days. My dream is to retire early and watch the clouds until I die."

'Lazy' was the word that ran through the other three people present. "OHH! I'll go next!" Ino said.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka. My likes are flowers, Sasuke-kun, and shopping. My dislikes are people who get in the way of me and Sasuke-kun. My dream is to marry Sasuke-kun!" Ino said with the last part being a squeal.

'Troublesome woman' 'Fangirl' ran through the minds of the guys present.

"Last one." Asuma said.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like people who treat others nicely, and ramen. I dislike those who act superior to others. My dream is to…." Naruto paused, "make some friends I guess."

"Wow. So depressing. I'll be your friend!" Ino said. Shikamaru nodded 'Interesting' and for the second time today, a smile formed on Naruto's lips.

"Well it was nice talking, but you three still need to be accepted by me otherwise you'll be sent back to the academy. To be accepted you guys need to retrieve these two slips of paper from me, but the catch is that only two of you can pass." Asuma said.

The smile on Naruto's face faded. Ino screeched "WHAT!" and Shikamaru sighed and said "Troublesome."

"Meet me at Training Ground 13 in 30 minutes." Asuma said before performing a shunshin.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight him," Shikamaru sighed. Naruto looked at his team mates nervously. 'Man, if they get paper, I'll be sent back for sure.'

After almost reaching the field, Shikamaru said, "You know I'm willing to go back and let you two pass."

Ino and Naruto looked at him shocked and said, "Why?" in unison.

"Cause being a ninja is way too troublesome."

Ino and Naruto looked at Shikamaru and sweatdropped. 'Lazy bastard.'

"Here at last," a voice came from behind them, "the rules are simple, everything is permitted, come to kill, and your goal is to retrieve these two slips of paper. You have until noon, Hajime!" The genin turned around and saw Asuma place the slips of paper above his heart, making them stick with chakra.

All three genin quickly made their way to the dense forest. Naruto sat in the brush and watched Asuma slowly walk to an open clearing. 'He's playing us.' Suddenly some rustling behind him made him draw a kunai into a defensive stance.

"Relax. If we want to have a slight shot at winning we need to work together." Shikamaru said with Ino following him. Naruto nodded and Shikamaru continued.

Asuma stood there pretty much knowing the team would pass because Shikamaru was way too smart and probably figured out the test already. Still, he wondered if the Ino-Shika-Cho trio would fare better than the current Team 10.

_Flashback_

_"Hokage-sama, excuse me, but is it wise to separate Ino-Shika-Cho?" Asuma asked. _

_Sarutobi laughs, and says, "I knew this was going to come up. I did this to maximize the potential of each genin. Two melee heavy genin with no real abilities to bypass heavy defenses is useless so Choji makes a good choice because putting Kiba and Sasuke on the same team would cause problems. Naruto still doesn't have any technique yet that can match the sheer power of the Akimichi clan techniques."_

_"But isn't the point of having genin teams is to allow them to grow?" Asuma asked._

_"Yes, but due to the instability of Kirigakure, and minor nations along the north of the Land of Fire wanting to expand into the islands of Kirigakure, the threat of conflict close by may drag Konoha into war," the Hokage said._

_ "So Hokage-sama wants to create teams that are more combat ready and somewhat specialized?" Kurenai added._

_"Basically."_

_End of Flashback_

'Hmm. It's been a while, and they still haven't made any moves yet.' Asuma thought. At the edge of his vision he saw a line make its way toward him and jumped away. 'So it begins.'

He saw several shurikens fly; he caught them and threw them back at the source. He heard the thumps of shuriken on trees and knew the person already moved.

"**Kagemane no Jutsu**" Shikamaru said as a shadow raced toward toward Asuma after moving a few feet forward from the tree line. Ino jumped out of the trees behind Shikamaru and threw her kunai to the right of Asuma to force him left. 'They want me to move toward the small stream, Naruto's probably there along with traps.'

"**Shintenshin no Jutsu**" said Ino as her body immediately became limp and landed on Shikamaru's shoulders. Asuma smiled, 'She shot it straight at me. The timing of the combination would get most people, but Ino is basically crippled right now,' and he ran toward the two, easily avoiding the kagemane, and keeping in mind the trajectory of the shintenshin. As he got closer, he saw Shikamaru smirk, and thought 'Crap he played me.'

Naruto shot out of the forest with a kunai in his hand straight for Asuma's back. 'This kid is scary fast for his age,' Asuma thought as he turned around, grabbed Naruto's wrist forcing the kunai out, and threw him away.

"**Kagemane no Jutsu**" Shikamaru said and the shadow was about two seconds late to Asuma.

'Crap he took out Naruto faster than I expected,' Shikamaru thought.

'So that's what they aimed for. That was a lot closer than I thought it would be,' Asuma thought as he leapt back to avoid the shadow. Naruto made his way to Asuma and threw a kick at his head that was easily blocked into a combo of four punches to the head which were easily blocked.

"Impressive speed," Asuma said with a smile while dodging. Naruto inwardly cursed, 'Not enough power to the punches.'

Asuma now took the initative and began to rain punches on Naruto some of which were blocked, some avoided, and some landed. Naruto grunted after every hit that landed. Asuma heard Shikamru say, "**Kagemane no Jutsu.**" Asuma quickly sent Naruto flying into a tree with a kick to the chest, and leapt to side.

'One second too late,' Asuma thought, 'he's getting closer each attempt.'

"Shit. He's too fast and skilled. I guess that's why he's a jonin," said Naruto in frustration as he went to untangle himself from the branches and made his way back to the fight. He ran as fast as he could when he saw Asuma making his way to Ino who was unconscious and Shikamaru who was basically screwed if Asuma got within striking range.

"**Kagemane no Jutsu**" Shikamaru said as he saw Asuma quickly close. 'Well shit. I'm screwed. He's too strong for us, but we're probably genin for sure.'

Suddenly Ino woke up, saw Asuma closing, and threw kunai reactively. While they weren't aimed, and wide, they did their job and slowed Asuma enough for them to leap back. Ino and Shikamaru both saw Naruto closing behind Asuma and realized this was probably their last shot because Shikamaru almost ran out of chakra and said "**Kagemane no Jutsu**". Ino seemed to recognize this and threw her remaining kunai and readied another **Shintenshin no Jutsu**.

Both of them looked in horror as they saw Asuma sidestep Naruto's punch and sent a quick chop to the back of his head to knock him out. "NARUTO!" Shikamaru and Ino cried in unison. 'Sorry guys… Looks like I'm done.' Naruto thought.

"Crap! I'm out of chakra Ino!" Shikamaru said as his kagemane fell short of its target while turning his head to face Ino. Ino kept on looking at Naruto's limp body near Asuma and turned around to Shikamaru with a look of fear on her face. Shikamaru took out a kunai and made a last attempt at Asuma. As he made his way closer he realized the Asuma in front of him was a simple clone.

"INO THIS ONES FAKE!" Shikamaru screamed. He heard no response and turned around to see Ino's body fall to the ground after Asuma knocked her out. Asuma had a smile on his face as he slowly walked over to Shikamaru who was sweating with fear now.

"It seems as if you guys work really well together. Better than I expected, and you seem to have figured out the purpose of the test Shikamaru," Asuma said while moving as fast as he could to Shikamaru's position. Shikamaru's eyes widened and he was about to say something, but Asuma sent a quick hook to Shikamaru's face and sent him sprawling to the floor out cold.

'These kids work well together. Maybe tou-san was right about them.'

**Sorry if there are grammar mistakes. Please review! **


End file.
